<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Ready or Not by witchqueencirce</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031841">Ready or Not</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchqueencirce/pseuds/witchqueencirce'>witchqueencirce</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fallout 4: Charlotte Walsh [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Becoming A Synth, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:40:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,162</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031841</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchqueencirce/pseuds/witchqueencirce</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>When your love and your son are synths... would you want to become a synth too?</i>   Nick Valentine grapples with Charlie's decision to become a synth.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Sole Survivor/Nick Valentine, Sole Survivor/Nick Valentine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Fallout 4: Charlotte Walsh [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/484085</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ready or Not</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>“This morning, with her, having coffee.”</i><br/>- Johnny Cash, when asked for his definition of paradise.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> Kasumi and I will meet you at her parent’s dock. </em>
</p><p>Nick had opened the letter that had arrived at the Home Plate that morning, addressed to “<em> The Valentines </em>.”</p><p>Even though he hadn’t signed it, Shaun’s handwriting was easy to spot. The blocky letters the same as they had always been, despite his changes.</p><p>In his forties now, Shaun had been off in the Commonwealth making his own life.  He and Kasumi were partners with the Railroad - at least unconfirmed sources claimed this.</p><p>Not that Deacon was ever really a reliable source. </p><p>...But he trusted his words when it came to Charlie’s son, he had no reason to keep secrets of that sort. Afterall, Shaun’s mother happened to be Railroad Agent Wanderer.</p><p>Wanderer. Charlie. Before that she’d been Charlotte Hughes, then Charlotte Walsh, and now -  if his old sprockets and bolts could well up, he’d cry for joy -  she was Charlotte Valentine. Had been for twenty years.</p><p>She sat across from him at the table, eyes scanning the note after he’d handed it to her as they sat drinking their morning coffee. His paradise, the one good thing the war had given him. Quiet mornings with the woman he’d loved since the original Nick had been fifteen.</p><p>But neither of them were fifteen anymore.</p><p>His yellow eyes scanned over the grey sheen of her hair, the lines at the corners of her eyes when she smiled, the sun-worn wrinkles on her hands, and how they showed the thirty years since she’d ended The Institute’s terror over the Commonwealth.</p><p>Sometimes he wished they hadn’t blown The Institute to smithereens, maybe what was to come next would have all been easier.</p><p>They’d leave on their trek to Far Harbor and then Arcadia tomorrow.</p><p>They’d been exchanging letters for months with Faraday and DiMA, following their locating of a decent candidate.</p><p>Shaun was going to meet them on their way, travelling with them, as they’d been there for him for his own journeys.</p><p>Thirty years ago, Amari had been their first option, but the delicate circuitry of Shaun’s childhood implant had made her unsure that she wouldn’t overload it in the uploading process.  He wasn’t a gen-3 as she was used to, but somewhere between them and the fourth iteration that Nick didn’t want to think about too hard. They’d averted that invention. Shaun had been the only of his kind.</p><p>They had to be sure they did it as safely as possible so they wouldn’t lose him.</p><p>Charlie had to be sure.</p><p>She had been terrified the entire boat ride to Maine, but Shaun had been sure.  There was only so long his eighteen year old mind could last in the body of a ten-year old.  He’d driven the decision to make the big leap. They hadn’t meant for it to be so long, but they had wanted the process to be as perfected as it could be.</p><p>Charlie had cried with relief when it had been a success to transfer his synth component to a new synthetic body, tears staining Nick’s old trench coat. And the two times more Shaun had had it done over the years, finally stopping the trades to a new self when he’d reached the appearance and mindset of a thirty-five year old.  And it had all been thanks to the work between Faraday, DiMa, Amari, and the Railroad that he would never age a day physically after that.</p><p>And now, Charlie was considering the option herself.</p><p>And it scared Nick shitless.  </p><p>He hadn’t felt like that in a long, long time. But this made his metallic joints weak.</p><p>It was one thing to transfer the implant of a synth to another at the Memory Den and Nick knew his own circumstances of how he came to be from human mind to synth, but that process had been lost with The Institute.</p><p>Until now.</p><p>Until the letter that had come six months ago from Faraday, until Shaun had encouraged his mother to take the leap, to join him and Nick in never having their body grow another day older.</p><p>Nick had some arguments about that - metal rusted, data banks filled - but Shaun was unfettered in the conviction that this would work and was the solution to all their problems.  He could see how the Father had brought The Institute to where it had advanced too, so sure of himself.  Nick only prayed Shaun wouldn’t take after his flesh and blood counterpart too closely - praying that their parenting would avert that.</p><p>But Charlie had agreed to it all, to everything.</p><p>And that’s what scared Nick more.</p><p>He wondered what she’d look like once the process was complete, DiMa had assured them that after years of searching, they’d found a synthetic option that would resemble her as much as they could.  Nick had been afraid to ask how they’d achieved that feat.</p><p>“So what do you say, Nicky? Ready to hit the road?” </p><p>Jolted from his thoughts as Charlie set down the small piece of paper on the table, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she slowly made her way up to the second floor to get her pack for the journey. He yelled up to her that he could have got it for her, he’d seen the way she was hiding the arthritis in her left knee, but she only yelled back down that that was the last time she’d have troubles with those stairs. She’d be ready for them when she returned.</p><p><em> But was he ready? </em> Not that this was in any way his choice.  He’d stand by her side no matter what happened, if he had to watch her body fail as he held her to her last moments or if he had an eternity with her.  Whatever came of all this, he’d love her for an eternity either way.</p><p>“Yeah, I suppose I am.”</p><p>Charlie assured him the whole way to Arcadia that after decades of weighing the options, this is what she wanted.  Couldn’t bear the thought of Shaun and Nick losing her again. He almost felt guilty when he started to hope with the rosy picture she painted of their future.</p><p>But the fear still creeped into the back of Nick’s mind.</p><p>
  <em> What if he did lose her in doing this? </em>
</p><p>Shaun met them when they hit the beaches surrounding Kasumi’s parent’s home a week later, the man running out to greet them with smothering hugs.  Kenji had passed a few years prior, but he could see Kasumi and Rei standing out on the porch together.</p><p>He couldn’t fight the joy he felt at Charlie’s smile seeing her son, at seeing her hope for the future that seemed just out of reach. At having this life go farther than what they had imagined.  At this all being possible.</p><p>And then when the four of them boarded the Nakano’s boat, Rei waving until she became a dot along the shoreline, there was no turning back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Prompted by lechatrouge673 as: "#20, A hand written note, for Charlie and Nick?"   Thank you! ❤ And thank you to ciribi for reminding me about Curie's companion quest!</p><p><a href="https://witchqueencirce.tumblr.com/writing">Check out my writing masterpage on tumblr!</a>  Thank you for reading! ❤</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>